The Festival of Saint Agata

La festa di Sant'Agata has been taking place all week. Her saint's day was yesterday, 5th February. She is the patron saint of Catania, and boy, do they love her. There have been 3 days of festival, culminating yesterday in a massive celebration which attracts, it is said, up to a million people, into Catania.

Saint Agata was a martyr in the third century, who, as a teenage girl, refused the advances of a Roman prefect. She was imprisoned and tortured, which included them cutting off her breasts. The story goes that St Peter healed her again. But she died in prison.  A miracle occurred, some centuries later, when the lava from Etna was in danger of engulfing the city, . The veil was held up and St Agata stopped the lava.

Olivette (left) and minnuzza

Minnuzze

I was told the story of St Agata by several people and it is clear that they all believed it, even those who claimed they were not religious. Yesterday's celebrations were fascinating to me, as we do not have anything which comes close in the UK, not being religious en masse. It was intriguing to see everyone turn out to see their patron saint. The event was huge, bigger than Christmas, and it felt very exciting.

It was a long day and could have been even longer. I met my student friend Giovanna, and sea shepherd volunteers, Luigi and Azzurra.  They were keen for me to try the traditional sweets which are eaten on St Agata's day, a cake (minnuzze di Sant'Agata) to represent her breasts (no, really) and some little green marzipan-type sweets shaped like olives, and covered in chocolate. There was also a delicious thin pastry thing. The minnuzza is very sweet with icing, a sweet cream and sponge inside, also with some green colouring, which is the colour of St Agata. It was very nice but quite sickly. No one else was eating so I made a valiant effort to eat all of them.

Sant'Agata's bust in procession    Credit: isolainfesta.net

There is a bust of Sant'Agata that only comes out for her feast day (it was once stolen from the cathedral so is now kept safe). She is covered in jewels and is taken through the streets of the city by devotees. As far as I understood from my friends, the carriage is pulled with ropes and it takes ages for the procession to go up through the town and back to the cathedral square. Giovanna decided it would be better to see her in the morning as when the procession starts around 5pm, the crowds mean you cannot move. I was amazed at how many people were already in the main street, Via Etnea, it was crazily busy. All along the streets were people selling sweets, balloons and rows of long candles which you could buy to give to the saint as an offering.

candles for sale

Many people were wearing the traditional costume, which is a simple white outfit with a soft black cap. From what I understood, only those who have made a special dedication to Saint Agata can wear this outfit. They reminded me of the outfits that butchers wear.

Sant'Agata. You can see her as well as I did

We managed to squeeze into the Duomo, which was very busy and I had my only glimpse of the bust of Sant'Agata, which was to be honest, miles away, at the front of the cathedral. I could just see her. It was too busy to push any nearer. But at least I saw her before she set off.
Outside the cathedral we saw the candelore, some large ornate structures which represent different trades, such as bakers, fishermen etc. They are carried by men as part of the procession.

Candelore outside the duomo. Men in traditional white dress

Footprints in the lava

Giovanna took me to a vegetarian restaurant for lunch. (More on that in a later post).  We came back through empty streets (quite bizarre in this busy city!) and met up again with the others in the square at the far end of the route. We went to the prison where Sant'Agata was kept, which was a small dark room carved in the lava rock. There are supposedly two footprints (or printfoots as Giovanna kept saying) which were made in the lava rock by Sant'Agata herself. I was all ready to scoff at this claim but when I looked at the impressions in the lava, they really did look like small feet. When we came out it was about 5pm and there were lots of fireworks in the nearby square - this meant that Sant'Agata had started her procession through the streets. We saw some of the fireworks over the roof but getting any closer would have meant getting caught up in all the crowds, so we headed back up to the square further away.

A large candle

The streets were covered in sawdust, as many of the (mostly young male) devotees carry varying sizes of candle, across their shoulders as part of the procession and the sawdust soaks up the wax that drips onto the road. I have never seen such large candles. Some of them were like logs. It was an amazing sight, later on in the evening, when one entire street was full of an orange glow from the flames. It would never be allowed in England, can you imagine anyone being allowed to wield anything remotely dangerous? Everyone had said to us (me and the other teachers) that the festival is full of mafiosi because of the money aspect - all these things cost money and I suppose they are where the money is. I don't pretend to understand it all.

We had a pizza near the square (I chose traditional Norma, a Catanese recipe named after an opera, with aubergine and ricotta salata cheese). All day long we had been trying hard to talk to each other - me in slow and painful Italian and the others in English. I think it worked quite well and I am sure we learned lots. The only thing is, it is very tiring to keep listening to another language and to try to speak, so by the time of the pizza everyone had reached the point where we were too tired to say anything to each other, at least, in a different language. It's a strange experience, everyone talking in Italian.

A candelore in the procession

After the pizza we returned to the square and were delighted to see the candelore had arrived! So we stood and watched them as they went right by our noses - Giovanna said she'd never been so near. It was quite a sight and they looked heavy, but pretty with flowers and pennants. The men make a sort of swinging movement as they walk which makes the candelore look like they are dancing.

By this time it was getting late and Sant'Agata still hadn't arrived. The procession moves very slowly it seems and Azzurra thought it would be about another 5 or 6 hours until Sant'Agata arrived in the square at about 5am, so we saw the men with their candles coming up the street and then decided to call it a day. It was getting decidedly cold.
I admit I was a bit sad not to get a good look at the Saint as she went past but there is plenty of footage online and masses of pictures, stories etc, if you google Sant'Agata you will see loads and there should be some footage from yesterday on YouTube soon.

Candelore

I had a wonderful day and it really felt like Catania had come alive, under the bright moon, with a real sense of excitement and fascination. I don't generally like Catania but yesterday I did, it felt like it had a beating heart and I felt part of it. It was amazing to see how everyone acted all because of this story about one girl and they seem to believe in her powers. My Australian friend, Agatino, is named after her, of course.
When I got home, Ella and Jo were still up and we had a lovely chat about what we'd seen - they'd been to town in the afternoon too and managed to see some of the fireworks and Sant'Agata as she was on her procession.

Lights were all the way down Via Etnea

At 5.25am I woke up to the loud and rapid sound of fireworks which went on constantly for ten minutes - Agata had finally reached the piazza al borgo where we had been waiting. I found myself smiling because it was nice to know she had arrived there. And from there she heads back to the Cathedral today. So if you ever visit Catania, February is the time to come!

My new Italian friends